Main menu

Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer are driving the Audi Sport Team Joest, No.1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro. The car led at the six-hour mark at Le Mans. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Audis hold advantage at the six-hour mark at 24 Hours of Le Mans

June 21, 2013

Share

Facebook

Tweet

Pinterest

Email

Audi ran one-two-three with a clear advantage over the two Toyotas as the 24 Hours of Le Mans reached the six-hour mark.

Benoit Treluyer led the race at one-quarter distance in the Audi R18 e-tron quattros he shares with Andre Lotterer and Marcel Fassler by 37 seconds from Loic Duval. The third of the German cars was more than a minute behind in the hands of Oliver Jarvis, with the two Toyota TS030 Hybrids another 45 seconds behind in fourth and fifth places.

Duval, who is teamed with Allan McNish and Tom Kristenen had closed the gap to the sister car with a series of fast laps after losing time early in the hour when he was held in the pitlane during a caution.

Jarvis, who is driving with Lucas di Grassi and Marc Gene, had also lost time during the safety-car period.

Toyota only briefly took the fight to the Audis, which had led the way in qualifying, over the first two laps before an accident which claimed the life of Allan Simonsen precipitated a drawn-out safety-car period that lasted an hour. Nicolas Lapierre and Anthony Davidson got in among the German cars to run second and third when the caution began.

Audi reasserted its advantage after the safety car was withdrawn just after the one-hour mark despite the superior fuel mileage of its rival.

The German manufacturer has a clear performance advantage over Toyota, which has opted to sacrifice outright pace in the name of fuel economy.

The LMP2 field was led by the G-Drive/Delta-ADR Oreca-Nissan 03 shared by John Martin, Mike Conway and Roman Rusinov. The best of the OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan LMP2s had led the class, first in the hands of Olivier Pla and then Alex Brundle, before David Heinemeier Hansson was spun into the wall at the Porsche Curves by the Duval Audi.

The GTE Pro class was led by Aston Martin, with Peter Dumbreck holding a narrow one-second lead over the sister car in the hands of Bruno Senna. Third place was held by Richard Lietz in the best of the Porsche 911 RSRs driven by Richard Lietz.

The best of the pair of Chevrolet Corvettes, which had qualified only eighth and 10th in class, was running fifth, one lap down on the leaders.